User Reviews

Today I enjoyed watching Concrete Canyons again and was pleased by the slower place and gentle feeling the whole thing has. I've seen this a few times and though it is not a nail biter it's a pretty good way to spend a few relaxing hours.

The score by Stu Goldberg added to that atmosphere with music that is understated with good melodies and pulls all the right strings. He creates pleasant musical support that stays in the background where it belongs and adds just enough tension when in the right places without overshadowing the on-screen action.

Like another review above stated, the similarities between Ben Sloane and Jesse Stone were there, the last names even rhyme, and there are other similarities. They are both good looking large men, with gentle understated strength who show a conscience and quietly and unassumingly do what they need to do, and they both have considerable appeal.

Polly Shannon is attractive in a Irish elf-like way and is a good foil for Scott Patterson; her character is sceptical and questioning, but not unwilling to learn and change her views once she researches his background and learns of his many successes. All in all, not bad character development for a low budget movie.

Another reviewer was more harsh about the clichés but it was easy for me to overlook them and just enjoy the film for what if offered, hopefully more people will feel the same way. It was good that they resisted the obligatory fall/spring romance cliché' between Sloane and Kincaid that most would have added just for sex appeal. They instead, concentrated on the theme of a family in a crisis trying to find help, hope and redemption and I felt it was the right thing to do.

I would gladly watch any sequels that they might make and be happy to see what happens with the characters.

In Greeley County, Colorado, the former Sheriff Ben Sloane (Scott Patterson) is an efficient tracker that lives in an isolated cabin in the middle of the woods. After rescuing a young woman that has been abducted, Ben meets Sheriff Darryl Carter (Aaron Pearl) tells to him that his estranged son Nick (Andrew Dunbar) is the prime suspect of killing his co-worker Raymond "Ray" Correlli.

Ben heads to Chicago to meet the unfriendly Detective Susan Kincaid (Polly Shannon) that does not help him. Soon Ben learns that Nick is married with Maggie (Emilie Ullerup) and has a baby son; he worked in the Stetski Brothers Constructor and studied architecture at college. Ben also meets Nick's friend Danny Smalls (Chad Krowchuk) that tells to him that his job was indicated by his professor Hoffman (Ted Whittall). Ben goes to the crime scene and finds that Nick did not kill Ray and the crime scene was modified and he suspects that the construction company is hiding something. Will Ben be capable to find tracks to prove the innocence of his son?

The beginning of "Concrete Canyons" is engaging and despite the typical clichés of Kincaid and Nick reactions and the corny conclusion, it is enjoyable. The plot gets too complicated with a mafia scheme and is easily resolved in the end but the performances in general are good. I saw this movie with low expectation and I find it surprisingly good for a TV movie. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Caçada ao Assassino" ("Hunting Down the Killer")

When ex-sheriff and expert tracker Ben Sloan learns his estranged son is wanted for murder he travels to the concrete canyons of Chicago to help. He wins the grudging support of detective Susan Kincaid, meets his son's wife and child and pursues the evidence to find the true killers.

It's the kind of low budget production where no cliché is left unturned but everyone delivers a decent performance. It seems a little underwritten towards the end and never delivers the physical edge that is hinted at but maybe they had to tone it down for midweek afternoon consumption and lost their way a little bit.

Overall, a watch-able little TV movie. Indeed, if they wanted to run a few more stories with Scott Patterson and Polly Shannon as the ex-sheriff and detective respectively I'd probably watch them.

Ok let me state that my rating was based on the summary alone. I wanted to watch this movie, so I went to the summary to learn more about it. But after getting a brain cramp from trying to read the summary, I realized that I couldn't understand what I was reading! I mean, was there no one who had the job of reading the summary to correct all the errors?!! I can understand a few typos, but this thing was totally jacked up! Sorry, guys, but I tried!!!

Major complaint, every time you see his poor horse it is crosstied in the barn. No one leaves a horse for hours tied like that. They cannot turn, move, lie down or reach food or water. So, I couldn't watch much more of it. Poor script and acting on top of it.

A retired rural sheriff goes to the big city to clear his son of suspected murder ... along the way he meets a snot nose wet behind the ears female detective that couldn't smell manure on her shoes ... he also learns his son hes been married for 2 years and he has a grandson ... from his observations at the crime scene he derives the info he needs to start solving the case ... he's an accomplished law man and will get to the answers ...

Great script and decent acting. Retired sheriff Sloane is a badass and has been out of touch with his son for three years. His son is accused of murder so he goes to Chicago to track him down. He does his own investigation and runs into trouble with the local police. There is a lot more this which makes it interesting, but don't want to spoil the movie.

Cookie cutter movie. Standard ex-sheriff haunted by the past drowing in a bottle. The storyline isn't horrible and with a better actress, the movie might have been decent.

Good background noise while wrapping gifts, but OMG, the detective's (Kincaid) acting is so forced and fake that it's like nails on a chalkboard. She tries to come off as authorative, but it doesn't work AT ALL! Her lines are ridiculous.

Great that the detective is a woman, bad that they make her character so dumb. So tired of cop shows making the female detectives out to be clueless so they can be rescued by the manly hero.

For starters, the acting in this seems pretty good. I rarely blame the actors in these movies as it's not their fault -- they're just doing a gig. Anyhow, Showcase has been playing these terrible movies shot in Vancouver at least twice a week lately (gaaaahhd!) You would think these made-for-TV movies were written by 12 year old boys. There's so many clichés like when this guy Sloan (what an original macho name, isn't it, and he wears a cowboy hat and jean jacket) arrives in Chicago (yes, he even wears the hat and jacket in the city), which judging by the drizzle is actually Vancouver no doubt, he goes to the police station and this sort of pretty detective woman (when are police detectives female and pretty -- btw, her name is Kincaid, as in Ruben Kinkaid, manager of the Partridge Family, another original name) says to him right off the top, some cliché like "This is Chicago, Sloan, go back ^&%ing sheep in the Andes". Obviously she doesn't say exactly that but you get the idea, it's like one of these 'This is the big city Sloan, you're not back in rural Vancouver'. I'm not going to waste my time watching the rest of it because I'm pretty sure I know what happens -- she'll start getting impressed by his tracker skills and they'll do the nasty etc. etc. Waste your time watching it but don't say you weren't warned.

Sometimes you have TV movies that are worth watching and then you have TV movies like Concrete Canyons that are completely the opposite, they're total garbage. If you tried to write a cheesier bad story you would fail. About everything in this movie is wrong, the story is so predictable and cliché you wonder if they did it on purpose just to piss people off, and then you have the acting that is beyond bad, especially from Polly Shannon that acts (if you can call it like that) like she's the dumbest female character ever. But the most annoying thing about Concrete Canyons is the soundtrack, those lazy piano tunes that fill the entire movie, trying to add some ambiance to the movie, but instead doing the opposite, and that is bugging the crap out of you. I wish I could dismantle that whole piano and shove every single key in a place where the sun doesn't shine, that's how much I hate the soundtrack guy. If you're a bit of a masochist then this garbage might be for you.

This movie follows a very similar model to the Jesse Stone series even including Polly Shannon, Jessie's girlfriend. Like Stone Ben Sloane is highly intuitive when it comes to solving crimes, packs a mean punch when attacked, and is not a huge fan of stupidity. Unlike Jesse he doesn't carry a gun but he does drink a lot of whiskey...perhaps a dog's stony glare would have helped in this regard but alas there is no dog in the story. Like Jesse Ben also seems tormented by some past misfortune but I won't say what it is as I don't want to spoil things for you. All said and done this is an entertaining movie with Scott Patterson more than holding up his end of things and while the plot may be cliche ridden the overall tale is believeable and well told.